18th Century Court Ensembles Project

IMPORTANT NOTE! Most of us who stuck through this project completed our ensembles in 2014 and 2015. Therefore, I’m not going to add anyone else to this page. There is a Facebook group for this project, and a few people are still planning their dresses, so you may want to join there if you’d like to play along!

Want an over-the-top, crazy/huge/fabulous 18th century ensemble? Who doesn’t! Well, I’m making one for the Costume College 2014 2015 gala, and you’re invited to join me!

How It Worked

Make a court ensemble — men’s or women’s, doesn’t matter — from any country, from any period of the 18th century. It can be historically accurate or complete fantasy, you decide!

Want to Play?

Make an 18th century court ensemble! The deadline is Costume College 2014 2015, but you don’t need to attend Costume College to play! Just post photos and information on your outfit on your blog, Facebook, Flickr, wherever by then! I’ll do a round-up post on all the finished outfits, and also let people know if you’re blogging about your project as you go.

If you’re coming to Costume College 2014 2015, then it’s court dresses for the Gala, baby!

To make sure we don’t end up duplicating each other, send me an email if you’d like to stake a claim to a particular outfit, whether it be extant or in a painting/fashion plate/whatever.

[…] of my big projects this year will be a 1720s robe de cour for Demode’s 18th century Court Gowns project based on Alexis Simon Belle’s portrait-within-a-portrait of Mariana Victoria of Spain (and of […]

[…] When I set the Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #5 “Bodice” I knew exactly what I wanted to make: a 1720s robe de cour bodice for Mariana Victoria, for the 18th Century Court Dress sew along. […]

[…] Information on 18th Century court dress is rather scarce, and there are actually no extant gowns worn in France left in existence. Sweden has a couple lovely examples left though. There are several blogs that show some construction of court gowns, and it seems there was a project several years ago where costumers decided to recreate court gowns of the era. […]